Funds are requested to support travel and/or conference fees for scientists attending the 4th and 5th biannual Gordon Research Conference on DNA Damage, Mutation and Cancer. The 4th conference will be held March 5-9, 2006 in Ventura, CA (USA). This conference, previously entitled Mutagenesis and Carcinogenesis, was renamed "DNA Damage, Mutation and Cancer" following the 2004 meeting to better reflect our concerns to deal with the large diversity of lesions in DNA, how they elicit cellular responses, induce mutations and cancer. In each session, we will try to cover current aspects ranging from chemistry and structural biology, to biochemistry, genetics and cellular biology. Speakers will be selected from among the world experts in the field of DNA adducts and their genotoxic consequences. This meeting is unique among the other GRC conferences that deal with genome instability as it brings together chemists and biologists. Special efforts will be made to optimize extensive interactions among all attendees through open discussions within each session as well as during the poster presentations and to encourage the attendance of minority groups, women, graduate students and persons with disabilities. The 2006 meeting will include nine sessions as specified below: (i) Spontaneous lesions: recent aspects ranging from structure to biology; (ii) How the specialized polymerases function in lesion bypass ; (iii) Specialized DNA polymerases and replicative DNA polymerases: how they trade places; (iv) Regulation of DNA Polymerases switching: ubiquitination; (v) Lesion recognition by repair processes / Mismatch repair responses to DNA lesions; (vi) Isolation and cellular localization of large repair / replication complexes; (vii) Damage avoidance strategies by recombination related mechanisms; (viii) Damage induced cellular responses: the molecular nature of the initial signals; (ix) The role of DNA damage in the induction of cancer. [unreadable] [unreadable] [unreadable] [unreadable]